Biodesign Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-5801, United States.
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100190, China.
ACS Sens. 2021 Feb 26;6(2):508-512. doi: 10.1021/acssensors.0c02058. Epub 2020 Dec 22.
Intercellular communication plays a pivotal role in multicellular organisms. Studying the electrical and mechanical coupling among multiple cells has been a difficult task due to the lack of suitable techniques. In this study, we developed a label-free imaging method for monitoring the electrical-induced communications between connected cells. The method was based on monitoring subtle mechanical motions of the cells under electrical modulation of the membrane potential. We observed that connected cells responded to electrical modulation of neighboring cells with mechanical deformation of the membrane. We further investigated the mechanism of the coupling and confirmed that this mechanical response was induced by electrical signal communicated through the gap junction. Blocking the gap junction can temporally cease the mechanical signal, and this inhibition can be rescued after removing the inhibitor. This study sheds light on the mechanism of electrical coupling between neurons and provides a new method for studying intercellular communications.
细胞间通讯在多细胞生物中起着关键作用。由于缺乏合适的技术，研究多个细胞之间的电和机械偶联一直是一项艰巨的任务。在这项研究中，我们开发了一种无标记成像方法，用于监测连接细胞之间的电诱导通讯。该方法基于监测细胞膜电位电调制下细胞的细微机械运动。我们观察到连接的细胞对相邻细胞的电调制做出反应，细胞膜发生机械变形。我们进一步研究了这种偶联的机制，并证实这种机械响应是通过间隙连接传递的电信号诱导的。阻断间隙连接可以暂时停止机械信号，并且在去除抑制剂后可以恢复这种抑制。这项研究揭示了神经元之间电耦联的机制，并为研究细胞间通讯提供了一种新方法。
